On Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:30:47 -0400, Bob Ammerman wrote: > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Terry Harris" >To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." >Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:07 PM >Subject: Re: [PIC] Microchip samples totally free again. > > >> On Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:02:14 -0700 (PDT), you wrote: >> >>>what happened? It confused people when it happens back and forth. Is the >>>system malfunction? >> >> Maybe they figured out a way to identify the people who were ordering >> samples to sell on ebay? > >or they decided that the lost legitimate sampling opportunities (ie: to real >engineers designing real products) was more costly than what they would end >up giving away. Real engineers designing real products don't choose components on the basis of availability of free samples. Non-availability (in small quantities with short lead time) can be a factor but not having to pay a few dollars for them isn't. For simple components with a mechanical aspect like switches and connectors evaluation is mostly just looking at them and putting samples in engineers hands could be a worth while loss leader. The effort required to evaluate most Microchip products make paying a few dollars for the product to evaluate irrelevant. I very much doubt the $7.50 charge lost Microchip any design wins, it might have lost them some hobbyist/students who might one day be real engineers responsible for design wins, pretty speculative and we don't know how badly their sample service was being abused. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist